nawa
You couldn't buy a Pixel in Russia even before the sanctions.
Google did pause most of their Russian business. They don't pay YouTube creators, don't allow Google Play purchases, and while Google Workspace is available, it's only with a non-Russian payment method. All the free online stuff is available same as before. They don't comply with Roskomnadzor's requests for content takedowns as far as I know (I might be wrong since I moved out of Russia and stopped paying close attention to it).
But in the end, it all comes down to business. Apple sells their devices through "unofficial retailers" that were pretty official before sanctions. They have a much stronger business presence there. Google doesn't, and they don't have as much to lose so they can afford this PR stunt. I'm certain that if Google's Russian business was stronger, they wouldn't be so uncompromising.
Worth it
Well, using pre-release builds was still a decision by CO. While I understand the decision, it is risky, and the risk didn't pay off this time.
I'm not too hopeful. The new devs' portfolio doesn't make it seem like they have enough experience to handle a big project like this.
It's sad because while Colossal Order definitely messed up the launch (though I'm still unsure whether it's their fault or Paradox — probably both), they knew what makes city builders good. I feel like two years in, they've finally handled all the faults of the base game, and were ready to build upon it and release new content.
I have to be optimistic because, like I said, the base game is now pretty good to build upon, but the new devs don't inspire confidence.
If Steam keeps extending like this, people will stop buying Windows for gaming.
Good for those people. Unfortunately, Windows has other use cases outside of gaming, and I'm not planning to switch to Linux because it won't be able to cover those for me.
I just don't want to see something like "Half-Life 3, built first for Steam Hardware" in an announcement five years later, and ending up having some issues on Windows because that was not a priority. So far, Valve only keeps improving their platform to hook everyone on the Steam ecosystem, but we can't be sure of their next steps. No one is immune to increasing profit margins, even Valve.
So this is the "Extend" step of PC gaming control by Valve. We'll see how open the Steam ecosystem will stay.
Looks similar to my old config except my 1060 had 6gb. I'd say this is pretty balanced, if you upgrade the GPU you'll get bottlenecked by CPU, at least in my experience that was the case. I guess a smaller GPU upgrade (say, to a 1080 Ti) could work but I'm not sure it's worth it financially. I'd say keep it as is.
I think USB-C was planned to also be a unidirectional display connector. Maybe it'll even get there in 10 years.
The rich don't care about your bootlicking
Hell yeah, more compact cars please
Caravan SandWitch is pretty cute. I enjoyed playing it even though the ending is kind of mid.